CHAPTER XL 



LAYING OUT FLOWER-GARDENS. 



§ 1. — PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE 

 CLASSIFICATION OF STYLES. 



Laying out flower-gardens, considered 

 as a work of art, may be divided into 

 three general heads or styles — namely, 

 the geometric style, the picturesque style, and 

 the gardenesque style. These are again 

 subdivided — the first into the tonsile, the 

 architectural, the sculpturesque, the Italian, 

 the French, and the Dutch, &c. ; the se- 

 cond into the refined picturesque, the 

 trivial picturesque, the rough picturesque, 

 and some others ; the last into the picto- 

 rial gardenesque and geometric gardenesque 

 styles. A mixed style, or employing more 

 than one of the above, is admissible in the 

 same garden, but not in the same piece. 



These may be considered the funda- 

 mental rules for laying out flower-gar- 

 dens upon principles of art ; but there 

 are other considerations to be attended 

 to — namely, the wants and wishes of the 

 owner, and the natural character of the 

 situation. The adaptation, however, of 

 any of these to suit existing circum- 

 stances requires great consideration and 

 judgment. It would be as great an out- 

 rage against the rules of art to place a 

 rough picturesque flower-garden in front 

 of Chatsworth, Trentham, or Eaton Hall, 

 as it would be to place one in the sculp- 

 turesque or achitectural style in front of 

 a cottage residence, or of a mansion, how- 

 ever large, having no pretensions to archi- 

 tectural character. 



The nature of this work does not re- 

 quire that we should go into the details 

 of landscape-gardening, in the general 

 acceptation of the term, our object being 

 to give examples of that department of it 

 only which is in immediate connection 



with the mansion, and properly called the 

 Flower-garden . 



The leading features, however, of the 

 principal of these styles we shall briefly 

 notice. 



The architectural style includes the in- 

 troduction of stone steps, parapets, ter- 

 races, basins, edgings to the beds, &c, these 

 being constructed in various cements, arti- 

 ficial stone, slate, fire-clay ware, cast-iron, 

 &c. The architectural flower-garden forms 

 a harmonious appendage to the mansion, 

 because, as we have elsewhere stated, it 

 constitutes a union between the house and 

 the rest of the grounds, and also as pre- 

 senting from the windows rich green ver- 

 dure, and the gay. colouring of the flower- 

 ing plants, combining with the more per- 

 manent beauty of sculptured forms — the 

 latter heightening the effect of the former 

 by contrast, as well as by the relief they 

 afford the eye in masses of light amid 

 surrounding verdure. 



The sculpturesque style is characterised 

 by the introduction of vases, statues, foun- 

 tains, and other sculptural objects. These 

 should always be specimens of the high- 

 est style of art. 



The Italian style is distinguished by 

 stone terraces, terrace gardens, and sculp- 

 ture combined. The architectural and 

 sculptural styles trace back their origin 

 to the days of Pliny, and their revival to 

 Rome in the zenith of her power, when 

 the fine arts flourished in consequence of 

 the encouragement given by the force of 

 wealth, and a high state of refinement in 

 society. The family of the Medici, early 

 in the sixteenth century, revived the latent 

 taste, and gave munificent encouragement 

 to artists, who laid out their own gardens 

 in the geometric and architectural taste. 



